In the Face of Truth
by Lilli-Blue
Summary: Light Yagami, a young determined man is willing to do everything to find justice for his murdered family. But odds are against him, his short-term memory has been destroyed. Despite everything, he sets out to find the murderer.
1. Chapter 1

Summary:

Light Yagami, a young determined man is willing to do everything to find justice for his murdered family. But odds are against him, his short-term memory has been destroyed, he is incapable of retaining new information. Despite everything, he sets out to find the culprit and meets Misa Amane who appears to be sympathetic to his plight, and Ryuzaki a seemingly dubious character who claims to be Light's friend.

Come dear reader and follow me into this head spinning adventure, but pay attention!Your concentration and little grey cells are needed to unravel a web of intrigues and steadily increasing obsession.

Prologue

A Polaroid photograph, clasped between a slender finger and a thumb.

A crude crime scene picture is shown upon it.

It is of a man's body lying on a decaying wooden floor.

A bloody, disgusting mess, where once the head of a living, breathing human being had been.

The image in the photo starts to fade, everything on rewind.

The hand holding the photo suddenly fans it in a rapid flapping motion, then holds it still. The image fades more, and again the picture is fanned.

The image fades to nothing.

The hand holding the photo flaps it again.

It is just at the beginning of its developing cycle.

Now the hand places it at the front of a Polaroid camera .

The camera sucks the blank picture up, then the flash bursts, momentarily blinding you with its white light.

* * *

><p>The Polaroid camera is lowered, revealing a heavy breathing are droplets of blood across his face. He stares, satisfied, at something on the ground in front of him.<p>

_Everything is still on rewind. _

There is wet blood on his clothes. His hand opens and he catches a handgun which leaps up from the floor into his grasp.

Still staring, he crouches down and pulls a body off the floor by the wet hair of its bloody head. He slowly inserts the barrel of the gun into the bloody mess where the mouth should be.

He flinches. A deafening roar as wet red liquid leaps off his face and clothes and head.

With a spasm, the whole mess reassembles itself into a face.

* * *

><p><em>"Where am I?"<em> you ask yourself.

Looking around, you see that you are inside a room, on a dingy bed.

Wearing a T- shirt and your boxers.

You get up, survey the room, as if for the first time.

In a corner, adjunct to a tacky dressing table, is a tiny space to hang up clothes.

Just a metal bar squashed between the wall and a ridiculously thin plank of plywood. Coat hangers, really cheap plastic things. Flyspeck upon almost everything.

You look some more. There's a key in a bowl. You grab it. The number four is on a plastic tag on it."

… a motel room.

You open the drawers of the dressing table and find nothing.

You … you simply wake up and are in a motel room. No idea how you came to be in this place.

The feeling that you could be here for the first time, but maybe you have been here longer. A week? A few months? Hard to tell.

No conception of it, really, simply an anonymous room.

It won't tell you anything... .

* * *

><p>Please take the time to comment. I didn't write for a long time and I need a little feedback on how I'm doing and if you get what I wanted to tell you.<p>

* * *

><p>Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction, using characters from the Death Note and Memento worlds, which is trademarked by by their respective owners (Death Note – Writer <em>Tsugumi Ohba<em> and manga artist Takeshi Obata), (Memento – Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan).I do not claim ownership of the characters and the world in which they are living in, I'm only borrowing them. This story is for entertainment only and is not part of any official story line. I do not profit financially from the creation and publication of this story and only wish to play a little bit with these characters.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer see Prologue. _Disclaimer s_till in full effect._

__Author's Note: Please take the time to comment and tell me what you think. I really don't know if I should continue this.__

* * *

><p>Chapter One<p>

Yagami Light's fingers rifled through the bills in his wallet and handed some money to the slightly overweight, sweaty, middle-aged man behind the counter. Ekiguchi Mikio took the money greedily and spotted something over the young man's shoulder.

Ekiguchi taped the Polaroid photograph that was sitting before him on the counter.

On the photo was a man in his twenties. He had a mass of wild, jet black hair, light skin and dark circles beneath his eyes.

Under the photo was the name Ryuzaki and a number.

"That guy's here already."

Light picked up the photo and turned to see the messy haired guy named Ryuzaki approaching the glass door of the office.

A bell chimed as the black haired man scuffed inside the office.

He was greeted in a monotonous voice.

"Light-kun."

Light eyed the disheveled man in front of him warily as he just stood there with a blank look on his face, staring at him.

Light nodded in apparent recognition. Taking a few steps in the direction of the door, he asked:" We talked about my condition?"

Opening the door for the both of them, Ryuzaki dryly replied: " Only every time we see each other.

"Together they went to the motel's parking lot. Ryuzaki slouched over to an elderly Toyota, but Light stopped behind him.

"Let's go in my car, Ryuzaki."

"But this is your car Light -kun."

With an insincere smile Light replied, "First, I cannot imagine driving such a car as this and second," holding up a Polaroid photo of a Jaguar," you know? It isn't nice to exploit the weaknesses of other people, and you really shouldn't make fun of somebody' s handicap, don't you think so Ryuzaki- san?"

His tone was a curious blend of reprimanding and ironic.

Waving the photo in the air Light exclaimed "_This_ is my car."

"Just testing a theory, Light-kun." the other man smiled slightly while rubbing a finger over his lips.

Paying his antics no heed, Light strolled to the driver side of the dusty Jaguar, that was parked right next to the Toyota.

Settling inside the car beside Ryuzaki, Light started the motor and pulled out of the parking space, conscious of the fact that his window was down. He couldn't think of a reason why he would do such a thing as giving a potential robber a free pass at his car. That and the coldness of the weather should have made him shut the window. Deciding to close it now because the cold wind bit at his skin, he pressed the up button.

A few fragments of safety glass were the only things that came out of the window slot on the driver's side door, but nothing more. Remnants of a broken window.

"Your window is broken Yagami-kun." Ryuzaki said with barely a stir in his voice. His face showed curiosity though. "If you wish I can get it looked after.

Simply shrugging, Light drove on.

Seemingly satisfied with this non- answer, Ryuzaki stated: "You have yet to disclose our destination Light-kun".

Light searched inside the pocket of his jacket and fished a note out.

"I have got a lead on a place."

He checked the note first, then handed it to Ryuzaki.

"Why do you wish to go _there_?"

"You know this place, Ryuzaki?"

"Yes, it's a dump. Why are we going there?"

Looking the dark haired man in the eyes, he gave his answer: "I don't remember."

* * *

><p>The Jaguar crossed the railroad tracks and approached a derelict building, all the while whirling dust and little stones up.<p>

Yagami Light halted the car next to a blue pickup truck, then stopped the engine.

Staring at the pickup he got out of the car.

"Looks like somebody's here, we should exercise caution."

"I saw that car here before, Yagami-kun. It seems that it is no new addition."

"What are you talking about, Ryuzaki? Light asked with a frown.

"Look at the evidence , the traces around the car are at most only a few days old and not even that. The car itself is clean, although there is dust everywhere. It can't have been here long."

"Evidence? Traces? What are you Light-kun, a trace sniffing search dog?"

Not even dignifying that with an answer, Light opened the car door and looked inside the vehicle. Leaning further into the interior, he found a few bullets.

Picking them up then letting them glide through his fingers, he mused for a few seconds, looking at Ryuzaki from the corner of his eyes, than he straightened up. Leaving the bullets behind.

"Come, let's take a look around." he said, not even bothering to turn around, to talk to the other man face to face.

Light strode purposefully to the entrance of the run down building, leaving Ryuzaki behind.

Lifting a curtain of teetered plastic to get further inside the house, he saw nothing but decay.

Paint and plaster rippling from the walls, the floor stained and musty. Only occasional pools of light brightening the gloom of the place.

Putting his hands inside his jacket pocket while looking further around, he felt the Polaroid at the tip of his fingers and took it out.

He read: "Ryuzaki."

He turned the picture to see what was written on the back.

Saw his own handwriting.

"Don't believe his lies"

"He is the one"

"KILL HIM"

Gazing into space with empty eyes, Light mumbled to himself: "Finally I have found him."

Hearing the crinkling of plastic from behind him, he stood stock still, eyes directed at floor as Ryuzaki approached him from the doorway.

"Did you find anything Yagami-kun?" he questioned tonelessly, as he scuffed towards Light

"No, I didn't assume so."Ryuzaki stated as he looked about.

Unseen from the black haired man, Light slipped his hand inside his jacket pocket again, palming a gun .

For one wild second he ask himself how he, of all people, should have come into the possession of a gun, but that thought was squashed as fast as it appeared. He _knew _with a bone deep certainty that the men behind him was dangerous, hazardous even.

Knew it, _felt_ it in the tensing of his muscles, the faster beat of his normally steady heart.

The sense of being at the mercy of a predator.

But no, the last thought couldn't be true. He was Yagami Light. Yagami Light would never be at the mercy of another person, his intellect forebode it.

Let alone at the mercy of a guy like the one behind his back. A slouching, pasty faced guy with too big eyes.

Defending himself – winning, by all means possible, that was in his character, in his nature. Even if it meant procuring a handgun. He must, at some point have come to the conclusion that this was a necessary aspect, even if he couldn't remember drawing that conclusion anymore. It must have been an integral part of guarding his safety. This was the man, justice _would_ prevail, one way or another.

Sighing deeply, Ryuzaki turned around and muttered: "I will search for abnormalities on the perimeter, so that we finally can conclude this excursion. We are wasting our time here."

Spinning around lightning-fast, all the while holding the pistol by the barrel, Light brought the handle down on Ryuzaki and hit him with brutal precision.

Ryuzaki staggered to his knees.

Taking him by the pits of his arms Yagami Light dragged the momentarily stunned man a few feet further into the room.

"Now you are paying for what you have done." Light told the seemingly dazed man.

"Ask for forgiveness and then, you are going to pay the price." he bristled with a rage-filled voice.

Cocking his gun, he pushed the barrel down into the other man's cheek with deadly force.

"Light-kun, you can't wrap your head around anything of what is happening here, at the moment."

Something in Ryuzaki's demeanor seemed eerily wrong to Light.

The monotone voice, the calmness of his posture, despite being threatened with a gun. The whole lack of emotion in the huge pools of his eyes and the almost unaffected way in which he acted, even as blood pooled from a sluggish cut on his lip and painted his teeth blood red.

"Beg my sister for forgiveness." Light demanded with flaring nostrils and narrowed eyes.

"Beg my father, my mother, beg all the others for forgiveness, before I blow your brains out." The fire in his eyes was unholy.

Every word only increased the pressure of the gun on tender white skin, leaving angry marks in its wake.

"Light, you have no idea what is going on here. You do not even know my name."

Curling his lip and smiling disdainfully, Light gave his reply: "Ryuzaki."

"Yes, because you read it off a meaningless photo, nothing more. You don't even know yourself."

Coming back from his brief second of uncertainty, he told the strangely calm man:

"I am Yagami Light. I was born on February, 28. I went to Daikoku Private Academy. I had a father, Yagami Soichiro. A mother, Yagami Sachiko . And a littler sister, Yagami Sayu."

"Yes, once upon a time you were that person. You have become something else, Light-kun."

"Shut your mouth." was the viciously sneered reply.

"You want to know Yagami-kun?" bottomless pools of dark eyes stared into light brown ones.

"Come," gesturing with his eyes toward a door, Ryuzaki indicated the way they should take.

Light looked uncertainly at the door and then fast back to the other man, never underestimating him.

"Come Light-kun, let's go down into the basement, you and I, together." The dark voice gave nothing away, but had a tempting lilt to it.

"Then you will learn, what you have become, who you really are." Now, a deep satisfaction in that voice.

Losing his focus for a moment Light pondered his options. Then staring back at the man with empty eyes.

A scream.

"No!"

A deafening roar.

_A flash bursts momentarily blinding you with its white light._


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer remains in full force and effect._

Chapter 2

_"Where am I?" you ask yourself. _

_Looking around, you see that you are inside a room, on a dingy_ _bed._

_Wearing a T-shirt and your boxers._

_You get up, survey the room, as if for the first time._

_In a corner, adjunct to a tacky dressing table, is a tiny space to hang up clothes. _

_Just a metal bar squashed between the wall and a ridiculously thin plank of plywood. Coat hangers, really cheap plastic things. Flyspeck thick upon almost everything. _

_You look some more. There's a key in a bowl. You grab it. The number four is on a plastic tag on it." _

… _a motel room._

_You open the drawers of the dressing table and find nothing._

_You...you simply wake up and are in a motel room._

_The feeling that you could be here for the first time, but maybe you have been here longer. A week? A few months? Hard to tell._

You look around the room go to the window and pull the curtain away. You look out and see a tree and the rooms opposite your own. Not much more to see.

Well, you know that you are in a motel room and you know any number of things about yourself. But the daily odds and ends ... for those, notes are really necessary.

Then you see a message written on the back off your hand:

**"REMEMBER Yoshirou Kaoru"**

Yoshirou Kaoru had the same problem. He tried writing himself notes. Lots of notes. But he'd get confused. He had no real system.

You rub at the black writing.

At first it's a surprise that it does not even smudge.

Then you realise, of course it wouldn't smudge. It is a vital clue. It needs to stay permanently. No sense in confusing yourself. So you made it stay permanently. After all, you need a system, a _working_ system, if you want everything to work flawlessly.

You inspect yourself more thoroughly. Notice your bare legs. There is a note taped to your right thigh with a handwritten message:

**"SHAVE"**

You pull the note off, studying it carefully. 

* * *

><p>Yagami Light sat on a chair, a Polaroid photograph in front of him. He couldn't discern anything on it, it was simply a black square with a white edging. The white bigger towards the bottom.<p>

The back of a photo.

There were two messages:

**"Don't belive his lies"**

**"He is the one"  
><strong>

**** Light turned the photo of Ryuzaki face down, took a pen and wrote another message beneath the two that were already there.

There was tense determination in every line of his body and his face as he wrote two words with sure strokes:

**"KILL HIM"**

Ignoring the photo for a moment, he held the handgun which was lying on the dressing table in front of him and checked if it was loaded.

Wondering about it with a frown and squashing the thought immediately.

This was not the place to wonder about its existence in his life. Now was the time for actions. Too much thought would derail his course.

A course he was sure he plotted excessively and thoroughly. It would be foolish letting himself be swayed by such a detail.

His very being made sure that everything he did, was with a purpose. He just couldn't remember it at this point in time, that was all.

That didn't mean it wasn't there, that purpose.

Under all circumstances, he needed to follow his pre-plotted plan.

Because every action, newly planned, brought with it potential downfall. That was not acceptable, especially _now_.

After all, at the moment, he could miss essential facts, facts he would not have missed before his unfortunate accident.

But however regrettable that accident was, it was by no means going to stop him .

Every other person would have despaired, but he, himself, would triumph over the circumstances.

He was Yagami Light, he was blessed with extraordinary assets.

He would make good use of them.

His most prominent asset being his intellect.

Coming back from his thoughts, Light put the gun and the photo in his jacket pocket and slung the Polaroid camera over his shoulder and let it settle by his side.

He left room 04 with fast and sure strides. He was on his way to the motel's office, but short of entering it, he stopped himself, straightening his spine, he drew a few deep breaths and prepared himself.

Light entered the office, confident, smiling at the man behind the desk.

Ekiguchi Mikio smiled back.

„Hello" he greeted Light.

„Hello, I am Mr. Yagami from room 04."

"What can I do for you Light-san?"

Perplexed, Light replied: "I am sorry … um … ?"

"Mikio."

"Mikio-san, I'm not sure, but I may have asked you to hold my calls -"

"You don't know?" Mikio shook his head from side to side, with short jerky movements.

"I think I may have. I'm not good on the phone."

Nodding in affirmation, Mikio stated: "Yes, you said you like to look people in the eye when you talk to them. Don't you remember?"

"That's the thing. I have this condition." Light confessed with a self-deprecating chuckle.

"Condition?"

"I have no memory."

"You have amnesia?" Mikio questioned slightly doubting.

Light shook his head.

"No. It's different. I have no short-term memory. I know who I am and all about myself, but since an accident, I can't make any new memories. Everything fades. If we talk for too long, I'll forget how we started. I don't know if we've ever met before, and the next time I see you, I won't remember this conversation. So, if I seem strange or rude, that's probably..."

He noticed that Mikio was staring at him as if he were an exotic insect.

Inside he had a desparate urge to pummel the cretin into oblivion .

Outside a perfect mask was in place.

"I've told you this before, haven't I?" he asked with a charming smile.

Mikio nodded enthusiastically . "I don't mean to mess with you. Honest. It's just so weird. You don't remember me at all, and we talked a few times."

Raising his shoulders lightly up and down looking bored, Light shrugged.

"What's the last thing you remember?" the elder man questioned him captivated .

Light looked through Ekiguchi with unseeing eyes, thinking.

"My parents."

With a fascinated tone in his voice Mikio asked: "What's it like?"

"Like waking. Like you always just woke up."

"That must be bad. All... backwards."

Light raised his eyebrows in inquiry.

Shaking his head from side to side and narrowing his eyes, Ekiguchi leaned towards Light.

"Well, like ... you got a pretty good idea of what you're gonna do next, but no idea what you just did." he chuckled. "You could say, I'm the exact opposite. Only the other day I-"

Light's eyes sharpened and he focused on the other man.

"How long have I been here?" he interrupted.

"A couple of days."

"So you're holding my calls?"

"As requested by you."

Yagami Light reached into his pocket and pulled out his Polaroid. "Very well, but this guy here, is an exception."

He placed the Polaroid of Ryuzaki on the counter in front of the hotel clerk.

Mikio looked at it.

"Do you, by any chance know this guy?" Light inquired.

With a pursed mouth the other man told him: "He is your friend, right?" "

What makes you think he's my friend?" Light had a note of disbelieve in his voice.

"Seen you together, that's all."

Shaking his head, Light stated a fact. "He is not my friend, Ekiguchi-san. But if he calls, or if he turns up here, then you will give me a call, agreed?"

"Sure. If you want it that way. What's his name, Ryuzaki, right? And nobody else, just him, right?"

Dipping his head in acknowledgment Light echoed: "Ryuzaki, yes. And just this guy, nobody else."With his finger he indicated the Polaroid of Ryuzaki.

Changing the subject Light wanted to know: "Listen, I hope my condition won't be a problem for you."

"Not if you remember to pay your bill."Ekiguchi chuckeled.

_Light smiled and reached into his wallet, his fingers rifled through the bills and handed some money to the slightly overweight, sweaty, middle-aged man behind the counter. _

_Ekiguchi Mikio took the money greedily and spotted something over __the young man's __shoulder._

_Ekiguchi taped the Polaroid photograph which was sitting before him on the counter._

„_That guy's here already."_

_Light picked up the photo and turned to see the messy haired guy __named_ _Ryuzaki approaching the glass door of the office. _

_A bell chimed as he scuffed inside the office._

_"Light-kun." _

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><p><strong>AN: Please take<strong> **the time to review and tell me your opinion.**** Is this story good/bad or too confusing? ****I need a little feedback on how I'm doing with this, and if you get what I want to tell you****.****I really don't know if I should continue.** **And thank you Carla.**


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